Eureka’s Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

“You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.” -Shirley Chisholm

Earlier this summer, as protests swept the country in response to George Floyd’s murder, we published a post highlighting 24 Black composers and Black-led classical organizations in support of Jamila Thomas and Brianna Agyemang’s campaign #TheShowMustBePaused. In addition to celebrating these voices, we reaffirmed our commitments to equity, inclusion, and creating change in the classical music world. Sending a strong message is an important step, but statements are not enough by themselves; we must be actively anti-racist.

One of my first actions as the new Executive Director of Eureka Ensemble will be to implement a comprehensive anti-racism strategy, building on the work the ensemble has already been doing on this front.

As a Mexican-American classical musician and composer, I have experienced racism in our industry firsthand. This is why I have dedicated the last several years to making the classical music world a more inclusive and equitable place. In 2017–8, I led an initiative with the Boston Symphony Orchestra successfully expanding their 2018–2019 season programming to include repertoire by women and BIPOC composers, to levels not seen in their history. This, together with my work for Eureka Ensemble, has twice afforded me the opportunity to present at the League of American Orchestras National Conference, where I argued for orchestras around the nation to assume greater responsibilities as members of their communities by increasing diversity and inclusion across their organizations.

I am excited to share with you what we have been doing and what we are changing in our organization. All changes listed below are effective immediately unless otherwise noted. This is neither the beginning of our work nor the end; these changes will take time to bear fruit, and we know that we will have to continually adapt our strategy.

As a young orchestra and organization, we at Eureka are passionately committed to being an instrument of positive change, and I am excited to play a part in delivering on that promise.

Thank you for being a part of our community. Let’s get to work.

Andrés Ballesteros

Executive Director, Eureka Ensemble

Eureka Ensemble Diversity and Inclusion Strategy: 2020–21 Season

Our next action steps are listed below. All changes listed below are effective immediately unless otherwise noted. Our next DEI update is tentatively scheduled for late January/early February 2021.

Organizational/Public Commitments

What we’re already doing

Our Leadership Team has worked with other arts organizations to evaluate and change their practices to be more inclusive. As one example, we worked with a local community theater group to diversify their ensemble from <5% BIPOC to a third of the ensemble being composed of BIPOC in just a few months. We are currently working with other local ensembles to review their DEI practices.

What we’re going to change

Eureka commits to preparing and publishing semesterly DEI updates both internally and publicly. We will hold ourselves accountable to the commitments we make and will let our community know where we are progressing and where we are struggling in as open, transparent, and direct a manner as possible.

Eureka will support groups doing exemplary DEI work in the classical music world through highlighting via our communication channels and/or other support as appropriate. We have supported a number of community organizations through our partnerships (such as the Women’s Lunch Place and the Chelsea Collaborative), but have not always done the same in the classical music world.

By the end of 2020, we will publish publicly-available demographic data on composers of previously-performed repertoire and the composition of our staff, both past and present.

Collaborations and Campaigns

What we’re already doing

We have consistently partnered with organizations led by and/or supporting underserved communities, implementing programs that directly address their needs.

Since fall 2018, we have run The Women’s Chorus, serving self-identifying women experiencing homelessness, a majority of whom are women of color. Through this campaign, we have served over 100 women, with support from the Women’s Lunch Place, providing a community through music.

Since fall 2018, we have had a strong partnership with the Chelsea Collaborative, a Latino-led community organization. Through this partnership, we have:

• helped run an after-school program that has served over 20 middle school youth at the Collaborative, culminating in a recital that centered on Latinx composers;
• featured mostly Latinx composers at our Spring 2019 concert, at which all commentary was delivered bilingually;
• and performed El Mesías, a Spanish-language translation of Handel’s Messiah, alongside traditional Spanish-language carols, with all speaking and marketing delivered bilingually.

What we’re going to change

We will pursue collaborations and/or partnerships with Black-led organizations, music-related or otherwise, in the Boston area, with an eye towards racial justice campaigns. We have begun identifying such organizations and hope to have partnerships to announce by our next DEI update.

Team and Board

Where we stand

Our current Eureka Core Team consists of 10 individuals:

• Gender balance: 5 men and 5 women
• Race/Ethnicity: 70% people of color (20% Black), representing 4 nationalities.

Our board of directors is currently 33% non-white (0% Black) and 100% women.

Our job postings focus on required skills for the job rather than specific degrees and we actively seek multiple applicants for quality and to ensure diversity.

What we’re going to change

The numbers above show that although we have a diverse team, there is room to improve.

Hiring periods for all positions will remain open for at least 2 weeks rather than closing automatically when we find a fit. This should allow more time to identify candidates we may otherwise have overlooked.

All positions will be publicized within the first 48 hours of approval of the position description across multiple platforms, with an emphasis on networks for historically underrepresented groups; these will always include the Black Student Unions in at least 4 area schools.

We will create an advisory board that is representative of the Boston community by the end of the calendar year. We have compiled a list of several potential new members for both this advisory board and our board of directors, with the names of Black individuals comprising over 50% of the candidates.

Applications and letters of agreement/contracts will include an updated statement of official DEI values.

Musicians and Community

What we’re already doing

We post information in relevant groups on Facebook or elsewhere (e.g., the Boston Musicians of Color group), and we have contacted the Black Student Union at NEC for auditions in the past.

Auditions require an interview component, including a conversation about each candidate’s commitment to social justice.

Auditions are currently video-only; although this move was partly made for logistical ease (independent of the pandemic), we plan to keep the format to increase accessibility.

What we’re going to change

We do not currently have demographic data on the musicians in our ensemble; we will send a survey to our musicians to collect this data and adjust accordingly. We do know, however, that Black and Latino musicians in particular are underrepresented. Having data on hand will allow us to hone our strategy further.

When auditions are open, we will send all relevant information directly to the Black Student Unions at NEC, Boston Conservatory, Boston University, and Longy, at a minimum, in addition to continuing to post on social media.

Additionally, we will send the information via any other channels we have available to us among Black classical musicians in the area, including those musicians with whom we have personal relationships.

Changes to the audition process:

• Send audition information and a follow-up reminder directly to BSUs in at least 4 area music schools/conservatories.
• Diversify selection of orchestral excerpts. (Goal: Feb 2021)
• Auditions currently consist of two parts: a musical audition and an interview. These have happened back-to-back in the past with no screen. Moving forward, the musical audition will be blind and feedback will be collected and stored separately from the interview component. Increased BIPOC representation will be a consideration as part of our process.

Provide increased training, opportunities, and requirements for musicians to engage in social issues, including issues of racial justice. (Beginning with our fall concert.)

Beyond these organizational changes, and recognizing Eureka’s historical ties to the New England Conservatory, we want to work towards making NEC itself a more inclusive institution:

• Members of the leadership team signed the recent letter to NEC from the NEC Progressive Action Committee (NECPAC) endorsing the BSU’s demands and adding additional points.
• As a member of the NEC alumni board, our music director is part of the effort to establish an anti-racism subcommittee, which will be actively involved in implementing any changes discussed by conservatory leadership.

Commissions and Programming

What we’re already doing

This past season, every public Eureka performance included at least one piece by a BIPOC composer. We continue to commit to having music by BIPOC composers at every public performance.

We have worked towards improved representation: This season, about half the music we performed was by white men (~42% of pieces, ~55% by length). While that is well ahead of the industry standard, we think it is important to expand representation, and we plan to improve on it.

We made a deliberate pivot to include more Black composers at our season-end Eurekafest, with 5 of the 7 featured composers being BIPOC and 3 of those 5 being Black, including 2 women. (Prior to that concert, our only public performances of music by Black composers were 4 chamber performances of a piece by Florence Price.)

What we’re going to change

Repertoire in our public programming will meet the following criteria, barring exceptional circumstances (by length*, not number of pieces):

• No more than 50% of the music will be by white men.
• At least 30% of the music will be by composers of color.
• At least 30% of the music will be by women/non-binary composers.

For commissions in which we are researching composers, at least 40% of the names under consideration will be composers of color, and the pool will be gender-balanced unless circumstances dictate otherwise (for example, for our upcoming commission of a piece related to the Seneca Falls Convention, we only considered women composers).

In programming, we will make a concerted effort to include more Black composers specifically, given that we had little Black representation on stage before this year.

(*Note: While most databases we’ve seen include such demographic information as a percentage of total pieces, we plan to make calculations by minutes of music. It does not seem accurate to describe a concert as gender-balanced if, for example, there are two 10-minute pieces by female composers and two 40-minute pieces by male composers.)